Legal claims defining the scope of protection. Each claim is shown in both the original legal language and a plain English translation.
1. A method, comprising: receiving an indication that first content is available for pre-delivery from a content server to a user device over a network; determining minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values based on a rate of consumption of second content by the user device and a rate of delivery of the second content to the user device from a remote content source, the second content being previously delivered to the user device; generating a cumulative-distribution function (CDF) curve that plots the determined minimum CCF values versus uninterrupted playback probabilities associated with the user device; selecting a fraction of the first content that is associated with the desired uninterrupted playback probability using the CDF curve; and causing the converted fraction of the first content to be delivered to the user device.
A method for pre-delivering content to a user device involves: receiving a notification that a first piece of content is available for pre-delivery; determining minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values based on the consumption and delivery rates of a second piece of content (previously delivered content) to the user device; generating a cumulative-distribution function (CDF) curve that plots these CCF values against uninterrupted playback probabilities; selecting a fraction of the first content based on a desired uninterrupted playback probability using the CDF curve; and then pre-delivering that fraction of the first content to the user device. This aims to ensure smooth playback of the first content when the user actually requests it.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second content includes content of a certain file size of the first content.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, where the second piece of content, used to predict playback performance, is a sample of the first piece of content. In other words, the previously delivered content is a smaller file size of the content that is about to be pre-delivered to help with predictions of optimal pre-delivery size.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the the second content includes content previously delivered to the user device over the same network type as a network type over which the fraction of the first content is delivered.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, where the second piece of content, used for predicting playback performance, was delivered over the same network type (e.g., 5G, WiFi) as the network used for pre-delivering the first content. This ensures the network conditions used for calculating pre-delivery are relevant.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second content includes content encoded with the same bit rate as the first content.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, where the second piece of content, used to predict playback performance, is encoded with the same bit rate as the first piece of content. This ensures that the encoding complexity used for calculating pre-delivery is relevant.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second content includes content previously delivered to the user device at a certain location of the user device during a playback event of the first content.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, where the second piece of content, used to predict playback performance, was previously delivered to the user device at the same location where the user device is expected to play the first piece of content. This location awareness improves pre-delivery size calculations by considering the local network conditions.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: predicting a delivery network via which the content is to be delivered to the user device during a playback event of the content, wherein the CDF curve is generated based on the predicted delivery network used during the playback event.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, which further includes predicting the delivery network (e.g., WiFi, cellular) that will be used when the user actually plays the first piece of content, and generating the CDF curve based on this predicted network. This ensures that pre-delivery is optimized for the expected network conditions during playback.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: predicting one or more delivery network conditions via which the content is to be delivered to the user device during a playback event of the content, wherein the CDF curve is generated based on the predicted one or more delivery network conditions associated with a delivery network used during the playback event.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, which further includes predicting the specific delivery network conditions (e.g., bandwidth, latency) that will exist when the user actually plays the first content, and generating the CDF curve based on these predicted network conditions. This optimizes pre-delivery for anticipated network performance.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determined fraction of the content is adjusted based on a current playback performance of the first content by the user device.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, wherein the selected fraction of the content to be pre-delivered is dynamically adjusted based on real-time playback performance of the first content. If the user is currently watching the content and experiencing buffering, the pre-delivery amount can be increased.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the determined fraction of the first content to be delivered to the user device includes causing the determined fraction to be delivered to the user device before the user device receives a request to consume the determined fraction.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, wherein the determined fraction of the first piece of content is delivered to the user device before the user has even requested to watch it. This proactive pre-delivery aims to avoid buffering when the user initiates playback.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: selecting the second content to correspond to content previously delivered to the user device at a location where the user device is predicted to play back the first content, and to content played back by the user device at a time when the user device is predicted to play back the first content.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, further comprising selecting the second piece of content based on content previously delivered to the user device at a location where the device is predicted to playback the first content AND at a time when the device is predicted to play back the first content. This uses historical data to optimize pre-delivery.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user device is a first user device, and wherein the minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values are further based on a rate of consumption of third content by a second user device and a rate of delivery of the third content to the second user device from a remote content source, the third content corresponding to content previously delivered to the second user device at a location where the first user device is predicted to play back the first content, and to content played back by the second user device at a time when the user device is predicted to play back the first content.
The method of pre-delivering content as described above, where the user device is a first device, and the minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values are also based on consumption and delivery rates of content on a second user device. This second device consumed content previously delivered at a location and time that the first user device is predicted to play the first content, enabling cross-device learning for better pre-delivery decisions.
12. A system supported by a mobile device, the system comprising: a content module that receives an indication that first content is available for pre-delivery from a content server to a user device over a network; a content fraction module that determines a fraction of the first content that is associated with a desired uninterrupted playback probability; and a pre-delivery module that causes the determined fraction of the first content to be delivered to the user device, wherein the content fraction module: determines minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values based on a rate of consumption of second content by the user device and a rate of delivery of the second content to the user device from a remote content source, the second content being previously delivered to the user device; generates a cumulative-distribution function (CDF) curve that plots the determined minimum CCF values versus uninterrupted playback probabilities associated with the user device; and selects a fraction of the first content that is associated with the desired uninterrupted playback probability using the CDF curve.
A system supported by a mobile device pre-delivers content by: receiving notification that content is available; determining the appropriate fraction of the content for pre-delivery to maximize uninterrupted playback probability; and pre-delivering that fraction to the device. The system determines minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values based on the consumption and delivery rates of previously delivered content; generates a cumulative-distribution function (CDF) curve plotting CCF values against uninterrupted playback probabilities; and selects the pre-delivery fraction using the CDF curve.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the second content includes content of a certain file size of the first content.
The system of pre-delivering content as described above, where the previously delivered content, used to predict playback performance, is a sample of the content about to be pre-delivered. This means the system analyzes a small portion of the target content for better decision-making.
14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the second content includes content previously delivered to the user device over the same network type as the network type over which the first content is delivered.
The system of pre-delivering content as described above, where the previously delivered content, used for prediction, was delivered over the same type of network as the one the content will be delivered over. This ensures network conditions are considered.
15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the second content includes content encoded with the same bit rate as the first content.
The system of pre-delivering content as described above, where the previously delivered content is encoded with the same bit rate as the content to be pre-delivered. This considers the encoding complexity when predicting playback.
16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the second content includes content previously delivered to the user device at a certain location of the user device during a playback event of the first content.
The system of pre-delivering content as described above, where the previously delivered content was delivered to the same location as where the content is predicted to play. Location awareness makes pre-delivery more effective.
17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the content fraction module determines the minimum consumption credit function values for the consumption credit function when the user device is actively requesting the first content from a remote content source.
The system of pre-delivering content as described above, wherein the minimum consumption credit function values are determined when the user device is actively requesting the content, allowing the system to react to real-time conditions.
18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the content fraction module: predicts a delivery network via which the first content is to be delivered to the user device during a playback event of the content, wherein the CDF curve is generated based on the predicted delivery network used during the playback event.
The system of pre-delivering content as described above, which also predicts the delivery network (e.g., WiFi, cellular) that will be used during playback, and generates the CDF curve based on this predicted network, leading to more tailored pre-delivery decisions.
19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium whose contents, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations, comprising: receiving an indication that first content is available for pre-delivery from a content server to a user device over a network; determining minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values based on a rate of consumption of second content by the user device and a rate of delivery of the second content to the user device from a remote content source, the second content being previously delivered to the user device over a delivery network via which the first content is predicted to be delivered during a playback event; generating a cumulative-distribution function (CDF) curve that plots the determined minimum CCF values versus uninterrupted playback probabilities associated with the user device; selecting a fraction of the first content that is associated with the desired uninterrupted playback probability using the CDF curve; and causing the determined fraction of the first content to be delivered to the user device.
A computer-readable medium stores instructions to pre-deliver content. The instructions, when executed, cause the device to: receive a notification that content is available for pre-delivery; determine minimum consumption credit function (CCF) values based on the rate of consumption and delivery of prior content over the predicted delivery network; generate a cumulative-distribution function (CDF) curve of the CCF values versus uninterrupted playback probabilities; select a fraction of the first content using the CDF curve for optimal playback; and pre-deliver the selected fraction to the user device.
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August 22, 2017
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